Havre Woman Charged With Drug Distribution After Agents Sift Through Her Trash

By Paul Dragu on April 11, 2019

Update: On April 29, Mariani pleaded not guilty to charges in this case.

A local woman is charged with several drug-related charges based on an investigation that began with drug task force agents going through her trash.

Toni Lynn Mariani is scheduled to appear for her arraignment in Hill County District Court at 10 a.m. on April 29, where she’ll plead guilty or not guilty to seven criminal charges.

Toni Lynn Mariani (Hill County Detention Center booking photo)

Here’s what happened, according to charging documents:

On March 21, an agent with the Tri-Agency Task Force went through trash that was sitting outside Mariani’s Havre home. The garbage was considered abandoned, court files specify.

The trash container was hauled to the Havre Police Department, where agents searched through the garbage.

The agents found baggies for packaging drugs, large bags with residue that eventually tested positive for methamphetamine and a broken pipe.

They then applied for and were granted a search warrant for Mariani’s home.

In her home, agents found .5 grams of meth and 11 Lyrica pills.

After a search warrant was granted for her Dodge pickup, an agent found 19.2 grams of a white crystalline substance. Some of the substance tested positive for meth, some of it was presumed to be meth, court files say.

Agents also found 1.4 grams of a brown substance that tested positive for heroin.

In addition, agents listened to phone calls Mariani made to someone while at the Hill County Detention Center and heard her discuss ways that person could remotely erase her cellphone.

The person told Mariani, in another phone call, that he erased the contents of her cellphone.

Mariani is charged with criminal possession with intent to distribute, three counts of criminal possession of dangerous drugs, use of possession of property subject to criminal forfeiture, and conspiracy to commit tampering with or fabricating physical evidence, all felonies. She also has a misdemeanor charge of criminal possession of drug paraphernalia.

Mariani is presumed innocent unless she pleads guilty or is convicted.